


New Dawn

by DarkEden1990



Category: Elyza Lex (Fanverse), The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comfort/Angst, F/F, Slow Burn, qtwd - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-05-31 08:08:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6462526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkEden1990/pseuds/DarkEden1990
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It has been a month since Alicia and her family escaped the horrors of the hospital and found refuge in Strand’s cliff house, but not all have found comfort in the respite. </p><p>After dealing with a heavy loss, cracks are already beginning to show between the group; tensions are running high and food is quickly running out.</p><p>When things appear dire, an unexpected agreement with a stranger concealing a secret will challenge everyone at the end of the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Supply Run

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to let this story unfurl on its own. I hope you'll stick with me through it. 
> 
> [WARNING: Major spoilers for anyone who hasn't watched all of FTWD yet! Takes place a month after the finale and was written before S2 was released.]

 

 

“I want to go too,”

“No. It is out of the question.”

Alicia followed Daniel Salazar out of the living room of Strand’s house to the kitchen where Nick and Chris were already preparing their bags on the counter tops.

As she passed them Alicia spied the torches, knives and guns they were taking. She gestured to them.

“You’re letting them go!”

Daniel didn’t hesitate. “I need them with me.”

“Why, because they’re boys?”

Nick and Chris paused in their packing to listen.

“Alicia,” he started, but Alicia cut him off.

“I can look after myself, Mr. Salazar.”

 “I have told you before to just call me Daniel. And I know you can.”

“Then why won’t you let me go?”

When Daniel Salazar turned she saw his eyes dim when they drifted to something behind her. Alicia looked too.

Ofelia was sat, slightly hunched forward on one of the sofas. Alicia saw no thoughts behind her eyes. Just an emptiness she had come to know well. It was the same emptiness she saw when she looked at Travis.

Though it had been a month since she had been shot, Alicia often found Ofelia nursing her healed wound, her eyes drifting. Even now her beautiful face was strained, the skin under her eyes slightly hollowed from hunger, sleepless nights and fear. She would sit looking out at the sea with her hand hovering over where Andy had shot her. Liza had done everything she could to help and Daniel had stayed with Ofelia as she healed, but nothing any of them did worked to pull her out of her darkness. 

 “The world we live in now is a harsh one. I have seen a lot of evil and horror in my years to last a lifetime.  But Ofelia – she is too soft. To look upon her now, broken and bruised, knowing that I had a hand in the look now upon her face – it weighs heavily on my heart.” Daniel brought his eyes back to Alicia. He patted her shoulder with a regretful look. “I will not be the one responsible for putting the same look on your face as well.”

Alicia pulled back. “It’s too late for that. We’re at the end of the world. Soft or not, we all have to do our bit.” She threw a finger in Nick’s direction. “He’s a drug addict and he,” she said, pointing at Chris, “isn’t a fast runner.”

“Hey, I resent that,” Nick complained. “I’m a _recovering_ addict. Been clean a month now.”

“Yeah, and I _am_ fast,” Chris said.

“Not as fast as me.” Alicia looked up into Daniel’s eyes imploringly. “Take me with you. I’m going crazy in here.”

Alicia could see that he was warring with the decision. He knew what she was capable off. The only obstacle in the way was her mom and Travis. There was no way they would let her go. Not when the house was a safe place. Hiding behind the secure walls of Strand’s house had pumped some unexpected normalcy back into their lives. It was almost easy to forget the whole world had gone to shit just outside the doors.

“What’s going on in here?”

Alicia sighed. _Great_.

Madison Clark smiled as she entered the kitchen.

When she clocked the bags her smile faded and she looked around at everyone with accusing eyes. “Are you going somewhere?”

“A supply run,” Daniel replied.

“Does Travis know about this?”

“There is not enough food left to last a couple of days, and we are almost out of clean water. Starvation will kill us long before the dead if we do not search for food.”

Nick leaned against the counter. “Mom, we’ve already spread out what we had left. I don’t know about you, but there’s only so many cans of beans I can eat. It’ll be a relief to find something different.”

Madison walked to the window and looked out. The streets were empty. Nothing but the trees moved in the gentle early summer morning. “You don’t know where the shopping marts are,” Madison said.

Daniel shrugged. “The time has come to find them.”

“We’ll be alright, mom.”

Chris pulled out a pistol from his bag. “We have guns.”

“Put that gun away, Chris,” a voice ordered. “You’re not going.”

Everyone looked up when Travis appeared in the doorway.

Though she had never really been close to the Step, Alicia's stomach stirred with concern when she saw him join them. Travis’s hair was disheveled and his eyes looked sunken, emphasized by the dark circles from lack of sleep. She never saw him smile anymore and he barely spoke.

In the whole time Alicia had known him, she had never seen Travis look so broken. Once she had been buried, no one spoke of Liza’s death, but the effect of it lingered. Alicia understood that he had done what he had to, but it had created a wedge between him and Chris. They rarely spoke anymore, if at all.

Chris glared across the kitchen island at his father. “Yes I _am_! I know how to use a gun.”

Travis wrenched the gun from Chris’s hands. Alicia noticed the way he looked at it and realised he had been holding the same gun he had used to kill Liza. “I don’t care. You’re going to stay here-,”

“And do what, huh? Watch TV? Read? Pretend like we’re not all starving? Somebody needs to go out there with Daniel to find food and bring it back.”

Travis looked down at the gun in his hands quietly.

“Then I will go,” he said finally.

There was a pause before anyone said anything.

Daniel Salazar patted the hand holding the gun. “Travis, you are still grieving. You have suffered a loss. Maybe it would be best if you stayed. Just for a moment, until you recover?”

Travis looked at him. “You didn’t. When you lost Griselda, you kept going.”

Yes,” Daniel agreed, “Because I had to. There was no moment to pause and grieve. I have faced horror before. You have not.”

Travis inhaled deeply. When he breathed out, he looked around at everyone. “I miss Liza but there is nothing I can do. She is gone.”

Beside her, Alicia felt Chris stiffen.

Madison looked at the floor, gently wiping her eyes. She may not have cared much for the woman, but Alicia knew that her mom had held some kind of respect for Liza. She could tell by the way she mentioned her whenever she spoke to Chris.

“Nothing I can do will bring her back but I can take care of you. We need food. I passed the storage on the way here and saw that it was empty. How long wo you think it will last?” he asked, addressing Daniel.

“I would guess three days.”

“That should be enough time to go out, get food, and come back.”

“Do you think there’s any chance Strand might give us some food?” Nick said.

Alicia scoffed. “Your friend didn’t even want to let us stay here. What makes you think he’ll wanna share his cookies with us?”

“Good point.”

As Travis started talked of preparing to leave with them, Alicia saw her opportunity. “I want to go too.”

As she knew she would, Madison was the first to shoot her down. “Absolutely not, Alicia.”

“Mom!”

“I said no!”

“So you’re going to let them go?”

Madison looked up at Nick, Chris and Travis. “I don’t want them to go, but we need-,”

“Maddie,” Travis interrupted her. “Let her come.”

Alicia smiled. “Really?”

“Yes. _Really_ , Travis?” Madison asked with an edge to her voice.

Travis didn’t look up from the gun he was still holding. He gripped it tightly. “We aren’t letting them protect themselves if we continue to hide them in the house. They handled themselves when we left them in the parking lot. They looked after each other.”

Madison sputtered to argue. “Yes, but-,”

Travis finally handed the gun back to Chris. Even as Chris held it, Travis did not let go. “A gun carries a lot of responsibility,” he said pointedly, looking to Nick and Alicia too. “It is only to be used when there is no other way out.”

“Why can’t I just use it when I see them?” Chris bit. “You just don’t want me using one.”

Daniel stepped forward. “It is better you listen. The noise attracts the monsters. It is easier to pass a few than a horde.”

Chris didn’t look happy with the limitations placed on his gun but he didn’t argue further.

Realizing she was losing this battle, Madison conceded defeat. “I will stay with Ofelia. She’s been more quiet than usual lately.”

Daniel tried to smile. “Thank you. I am grateful. She will not open up to me. Perhaps she will listen to you?”

After receiving a nod from Travis, Daniel turned to Alicia. When she looked down and saw a small pistol Alicia stared at the heavy looking gun and swallowed. “Do you know how to use this?”

“Pull the trigger, right?”

“Safety is here.” Daniel pushed a button down on the side of the gun. “Down is off. Slide the barrel back to load. Aim and shoot. Press this to release the magazine and reload, then slide it back in.” He put the safety back on. “You got it?”

Alicia nodded. “Got it.”

The gun weighed heavily in her hand. It felt strange to hold one knowing that she might have to use it for real. She aimed it out the window and looked down the sight at the lamppost across the street.

“A lot different from our water pistols, eh, Alicia?” Nick joked.

Alicia tucked the gun into the back of her trousers. “Yeah.”

As Nick, Chris and Daniel shouldered their rucksacks, Alicia felt Madison sidle up next to her.

“Mom.”

 Alicia let herself be pulled into hug. “Please be careful, Licia. Stay with them. And always watch your back.”

“I will.”

Madison held her at arm’s length to look at her. She smiled as she reached up to brush a strand of Alicia’s hair out of her eyes.

It was a rare thing to see on anyone these days, but it never failed to lift Alicia when she saw one. They were like snowflakes now. Each one different, telling a story. Madison couldn’t hide her fear. Alicia could tell her mom was less than happy that she was leaving to go on the supply run but she knew as well as they did that she was needed. The more people that went, the better their chances were, and as long as Alicia was able, she was going to help.

“I love you, mom.”

The fear for her daughter faded and Madison’s smile became more genuine. “I love you too.”

 

 

 

# # #

 

 

 

 

“Hey, Alicia? Look! Actual cookies!” Nick laughed. He grabbed as many bags as he could hold and carried them over to the shopping cart.

“Only take a couple. Leave some food for any other survivors that might be around here,” Travis called from the next aisle over.

Nick paused. “Fine.” He threw just a couple of bags in to the cart and pushed it along. “But I don’t see the point. We haven’t seen anyone alive for weeks. Leaving the food is just as bad as letting it spoil.”

“And taking everything is just as bad as taking food out of a starving mouth,” Alicia replied.

They looked at each other and carried on browsing.

“Look for canned stuff,” Alicia said as she scoured the shelves. “They’ll last longer than those cookies.”

Alicia pushed objects aside. There was hardly anything left. Whoever had been here before her had almost picked it clean. There was nothing except for a couple of boxes of Instant Mash and a bottle of curdled milk.

“I get that,” he said, “but we should at least take some of the perishable stuff too. Why do you think it’s called ‘perishable’?”

Alicia straightened and threw him a look. “You’re just looking for excuses to horde more candy.”

Nick grinned. “Finders keepers.” He popped a couple of jelly worms into his mouth. “Do you want one?”

Alicia shook her head.

Nick shrugged. “Your loss. Hey, do you think I can catch one in my mouth?”

Without waiting for an answer Nick threw a jelly up in the air.

The little red jelly worm bounced off his cheek and fell to the floor. The pitiful look on his face at the sight of the now dirty candy made a laugh bubble out of Alicia for the first time in days.

“I’ll get it this time.”

Alicia laughed again when the jelly fell off his tongue and he scrambled to catch it before it dropped to the floor.

Their carefree fun didn’t last long before someone shouldered their way between them.

“Stop acting like children and get the food, idiots,” Chris growled as he passed. “There could be some of those things around here.”

“We already checked the place out. Geez, lighten up will ya? Jus’ having a little fun.”

“This isn’t the time to be having fun, Nick,” Chris shot back.

Alicia and Nick stared silently until he reached the other end on the aisle.

Once he was out of earshot Nick said, “He’s taking having a gun to his head.”

Alicia shook her head. “His mom died, Nick. He’s taking it hard. Remember how hard it was for us?”

Nick sighed. “I know.”

Alicia stooped to grab a scratched up can nearby. She held it in her hand, not really taking notice of the label and what was inside it. Her mind was elsewhere.

Stephen Clarke had been dead for six years and not a day went by when she didn’t find herself thinking about him one way or another. Whether it was his smile, something he had said to her, or even just remembering his face, her dad never left her thoughts.

Alicia still remembered the day her mom had told her that he had died. She had been a child but she knew what death meant and it hit her harder than anything ever had or would. For months after it happened Alicia lashed out at everything and everyone, screaming and shouting, throwing her toys around until she had cried her eyes dry. When there was nothing else, she fell into her school work. The pain never went away but it became livable.

Looking over at Chris, Alicia felt an overwhelming wave of compassion. After being told about Liza’s bite, Chris knew what needed to be done – they all did, but it didn’t make it any easier to deal with. He had lost his mom and nothing was going to bring her back.

Travis rounded the corner. “Did you find much?”

Nick pushed the cart over.

Seeing the heap of cookies, chips and pretzels, Travis raised an eyebrow at him. “The essentials?”

Nick shrugged. “They need eating before they go bad.”

“Uh huh. Alicia?” Travis called.

Alicia stood with the can still in her hand. When she finally looked at it she felt a smile tug at her mouth. She brought it over and threw it in the cart.

Nick made a disgusted noise. “More beans?”

“There was a whole shelf near the end of the aisle”

“Great.”

Travis looked past them both. When he saw Chris alone he gestured with a nod. “Is he okay?”

Alicia looked too. “He misses Liza.”

With a grave expression Travis nodded and inhaled deeply. “I’ll talk to him.”

Alicia watched him shoulder his rifle and move to talk to Chris.

Without another work, Nick and Alicia looked at one another before carrying on with shopping for supplies.

 

 

 

 

# # #

 

 

 

When they had finally gathered enough food Travis and Daniel agreed to turn and head back to the house. Outside the sunlight was fading fast. Flicks of red and gold streaked the sky, painting the ground in fire. Nick bounced his bag on his back, smiling triumphantly.

“Good haul I think.”

Daniel clapped him on the back. “We did well today. I can’t wait to see the look on Ofelia’s face when I show her I found some chips. I do not like them but she has always been fond of them.”

Alicia smiled. “I can’t remember the last time I was this happy coming back from a shopping trip. Or getting food for that matter.”

“The end of the world makes you rethink a lot of the things you used to take for granted,” Travis said sagely, looking at his son as he currently spearheaded the group.

Chris wasn’t listening to their conversation. He continued to walk before them, his gun half raised – ready to use at a moment’s notice.

Alicia didn’t know what Travis has talked to him about but since he came back, Chris was a little quieter. His body no longer looked tensed up with pent up anger. Instead he just looked sad.

Nick broke the silence when the sight of cars brought the attention back to returning to the house. “Anyone remember where we parked?”

Alicia looked out at the steel graveyard; abandoned by their owners the cars stood frozen in time. Her eyes roamed the street but she couldn’t theirs.

Movement in her line of sight made her stop still.

Travis noticed her stop and looked to her. “Alicia? Are you alright?”

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to find our car. Look.”

Travis turned his head to where she was pointing. Alicia saw the moment he realised what she had seen.

At least a dozen walking undead corpses littered the street, dotted between where they had parked. They bumped into one another, aimlessly moving back and forth between the cars, garbling and snapping.

“ _Shit_.”

“What are we going to do?” Alicia asked.

Travis brushed his dark, stubbled jaw in thought. “I think I saw another way around. It’s long but could be safer.”

Daniel approached them. “Which way do we go? We have company and I would not recommend the tunnel over there,” he said, nodding to the narrow tunnel packed with cars and barely lit enough to see any end.

Travis pointed behind them. “We go back, circle around the mart and find another route.”

Daniel nodded. “Let’s go. We can take the back road.”

Alicia didn’t move when they started walking.

“Alicia!” Nick whispered loudly. “Come on.”

Alicia shook her head absently. “Chris hasn’t noticed.”

Either too distracted or just completely unaware, Chris didn’t realise he was moving toward them when he had walked off. “Chris hasn’t seen them yet.”

Before she knew what she was doing Alicia shouldered both straps of her bag and ran after him.

“Chris!” she called hesitantly when she got close enough. “Chris, the undead-,”

Chris turned too quickly hearing her approach. Alicia saw his eyes grow wide with panic when he realise they were almost stood encircled in undead. He lifted his gun to one of the walkers near him and shot.

The gunshot downed the walker but the sound cracked like thunder in the quiet stillness. Almost all at once heard turned in their direction and feet began to shuffle.

“ _No_! Why did you do that?” Alicia growled.

Redness bloomed in Chris’s tanned cheeks. “I’m sorry, I panicked.”

“Come on!” Alicia grabbed him by his wrist and started tugging him back toward Travis. She stopped short when more fell down the hillside.

“Quickly! Run!”

Chris swore under his breath, pulling himself free of her, and started running toward Travis and the others.

In his desperation he didn’t see the walkers rising from behind the cars nearby. He screamed as one of them grabbed at his leg and pulled him down.

“Alicia! Help! It’s got my leg!” he yelled.

Grabbing a stick on the way Alicia ran over. She swung the fallen branch as hard as she could, driving the sharper end into the rotting corpse’s eye. She pushed until blood spat out from the walker’s sunken eye and ripped it upwards until she heard a crack and it fell limply to the ground.

When it loosened its grip on him Chris shuffled backwards, kicking himself away until he regained his footing.

“Did you get bit?” Alicia asked breathlessly.

When he didn’t answer, his eyes still on the fallen walker, Alicia shook him hard. “I said, did you get bit?”

Chris finally shook his head.

“Good. Okay. Come on, Travis-,”

As Alicia turned her words died on her tongue.

Between running to get Chris and stopping the walker, a horde had amassed in the space between Alicia and Chris, and their group.

She saw Travis motioning back in the direction they had come, all the while backing away from the herd of walkers following them. When she couldn’t see them over the top of their heads anymore, Alicia started to panic.

No, she wouldn't panic. She needed to keep a cool head. She hadn't died up to this point and she sure as hell wasn't going to die today.

Alicia whipped her head around quickly.

Seeing that the tunnel was the only way not covered in walkers, Alicia grabbed Chris’s arm and yanked him toward it. “This way!”


	2. Taking Chances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alicia and Chris find more than they were expecting in the tunnel.

 

 

Alicia covered her ears when the tunnel walls lit up with gunfire, the sound echoing loudly in the small space. It shattered her ears. Chris shot again and she heard him miss in his panic, instead hitting a car. Alicia turned to aim and shoot.

One fell.

Then another.

And they kept coming.

“There’s too many!” Chris yelled.

“Keep moving!” Alicia shouted back. “Don’t stop.”

The walkers weren’t running, but there were enough to be a force and if they caught up, Alicia knew she and Chris wouldn’t have enough ammo between them to take them all down.

She jumped when the fluorescent tunnel lighting flickered to life above them. In the yellow light the walkers became more frightening; the new light threw their shadows against the walls, making it seem as though they were closer than they were, and emphasised their torn clothes and decomposing bodies, mottled with ripped chunks of skin and splashes of blood, new and old over their gnashing mouths and clothes.

The tunnel was too long and the number of cars turned the tunnel into a life-sized maze. Beside her Chris wheezed to keep up the pace; he wasn’t going to last much longer than she was. Even Alicia struggled to breath. Their strides were getting shorter and their breaths laboured.

There had to be somewhere they could hide. Or maybe there was a way out – a maintenance doorway leading out of the tunnel? Alicia looked around but her hopes quickly dwindled with her energy.

“We can’t out run them,” Chris rasped, echoing her thoughts.

Alicia pointed. “Try the cars. We’ll hide out until they pass.”

Chris’s hair whipped across his brown eyes as he turned to her. “Are you crazy?”

“Do you have a better idea? We haven’t eaten and you can’t run anymore. This is our only chance.”

Chris licked his cracked lips. He couldn’t argue. “Okay.”

Together they moved along the rows. The pulled at the handles; most were broken and or had smashed windows. Alicia couldn’t afford to let them risk hiding in one of them. All it would take was for one of the walkers to notice them and they would be screwed.

A large sturdy looking Range Rover came into view. It wasn’t much, but the doors looked strong enough that they might hold against the walkers up if they were seen.

“Head for the Rover!”

While Chris moved to the car she pointed out, Alicia looked behind them to see how far away the dead were. The tunnel echoed with the wet garbled moans of the approaching herd but she was relieved to see they were still far enough away to hide.

Chris swore as he tugged at the handle. “The door’s jammed. It’s been run into and dented the door!”

 _No, please._ “It’ll budge. Try again.”

Alicia looked behind them. The shadows were getting smaller; the walkers were getting closer.

“Keep trying!”

Chris threw himself against the car, pulling as hard as he could to loosen the door. When he tried again and came away moaning and holding his shoulder, Alicia pushed him aside.

“Let me try.”

She braced herself and kicked against the car. Eventually the door loosened and the door swung open. “ _Get in!_ ”

Chris wasted no time. He threw himself in and Alicia scrambled in after him, slamming and locking the door behind her. With her heart racing in her throat, Alicia moved to the back. They lowered themselves between the backs of the seats and kept their heads down.

Seconds passed like minutes while they waited. Everything felt amplified in the cab; Alicia’s blood sang in her ears and the mingled sounds of their rushed, fearful breaths in the car sounded too loud. Alicia forced herself to stay calm – to breathe carefully and slowly.

They were no longer alone.

The throaty groans they had come to familiar with sounded nearby. The walkers shuffled close, their clothes, protruding bones and fingers scratching against the glass as moved against the car, unaware of the living within.

Chris squeezed his eyes shut when the Range Rover rocked as the walkers bumped against it, and huddled further down behind the passenger seat to make himself small. He barely moved, his face peppered with sweat and his eyes closed as he gently whispered something under his breath.

At the sight of a couple of walkers pressing heavily against the window, Alicia had to force herself to stay perfectly still and silent to prevent broadcasting where she was.

Alicia closed her own eyes.

Madison’s face appeared in her mind. She thought about all the times she had argued with her – all the times she had been stubborn and rolled her eyes when she knew her mom had been doing everything she could. Alicia regretted not telling her that she loved her more. Even Travis. He wasn’t her dad, but he was a good man and he made her mom happy. He had led the family and kept them safe. Alicia needed him to know she accepted him.

She thought of Nick. They hadn’t always agreed or gotten along but she loved him deeply. Alicia saw his smirk in her mind and couldn’t help but smile too. Before the end, before the drugs, no matter the situation, Nick had always had a smile. It was the same as her dad’s.

She thought of Daniel and Ofelia and how they had become more than just acquaintances over the past month. They felt almost like family now.

If they got out of this, Alicia swore she would tell them both that she loved them more.

Opening her eyes Alicia glared the horde as it passed.

She just watched them move, one by one, counting the minutes as they passed on her watch.

 

 

 

# # #

 

 

 

 

A loud bang jerked Alicia awake.

With sleep heavy eyes Alicia looked around to see where the noise had come from.

Chris tugged at the car door, slamming it shut properly and turned in the front seat of the Rover, his rucksack on his knees and a bloody knife in his hand. He muttered something to himself as he dropped it into the passenger’s seat, and started rifling through his bag.

Alicia wanted to ask what he was looking for. But when she realised that he had closed the door on his way back in, she couldn’t ask anything else. “You _left_?”

Chris jumped at Alicia’s stony voice. He turned, his face pale. “You were exhausted. You didn’t sleep all night while they were out there. I didn’t want to wake you. I was just gone for a second. The tunnel is clear. There’s nothing around now.”

Alicia eyed the bloody knife, unconvinced.

Chris saw it too. He smiled nervously. “There was _one_ walker and it was already down but it was still crawling about.”

“You left me alone in the car. Where did you go?”

“I was only gone for a moment-,”

“Where did you go? Were you followed?”

“What? No. I told you, there are no more walkers. I didn’t go too far from the car; I went to see if there was a way out.”

Alicia clenched her jaw. She had never wanted to hit anyone as much as she wanted to hit Chris right then. “What did you find out?”

“The tunnel stretches on for a bit around the corner. I couldn’t hear any walkers but they could still be down there.” Chris looked to her then to his bag and back again. “What do you want to do?”

“I want to hit you,” Alicia admitted.

Chris flinched away but she didn’t make a move to touch him. Instead Alicia grabbed the knife and climbed into the front with him.

“I think we should go back and circle around to the mart. Follow the trail back the way we came. They won’t be far.”

Chris nodded. “He will have left a note, directions – something to tell us where to go next when we managed to get away. Besides, we don’t know where this tunnel leads or what is at the other end.”

Alicia nodded. “Right. It could be a dead end.”

Grabbing her pistol from the back of her pants, Alicia tapped the gun. “How many bullets have you got left?”

Chris grabbed his own gun. When he slid out the magazine to inspect it, Alicia noticed the colour drain from his face.

“None.”

Alicia couldn’t speak for a moment. “What the hell, Chris? Are you serious?”

Chris frowned, unhappy with the tone of her voice. “We were being chased, okay? What did you expect me to do? Count?”

“Yes!” Alicia checked her own magazine. “I have four left. We’re going to have to save them. If we see any walkers, then we stick to the-,”

Repetitive gun shots ripped through the air like thunder; the sound of it bounced off the walls, making both Alicia and Chris flinch and throw themselves down instinctively. They looked at each other when it stopped. Chris looked as confused and afraid as she felt. 

“I know you’re around here,” a loud voice bellowed. “Come out!”

Ice settled in Alicia’s bones, freezing her in place. She dropped the knife and forced her heart to begin beating again. “I thought you said you weren’t followed?”

Chris looked terrified. “I was looking out for walkers and saw none. I didn’t know anyone was watching me.”

They both clamped their hands over their ears as gunfire rattled out again off the walls of the enclosed tunnel.

“I said _come out_ , or the next shots won’t be a warning,” the voice threatened, sounding a lot closer. “I’m not playing any games t’day, alright?”

Alicia could hear herself swallow. She frowned. There was something about the voice that sounded off. Like the words were almost unclear or muffled by something.

“What are we going to do?”

Alicia looked down at the gun still resting in her hand. She tightened her grip around it until her fingers became white. When she looked up, Chris’s eyes had widened knowingly.

“Are you serious?”

“I’m going to try and talk to them first,” Alicia explained. “If they aren’t willing to listen, I might be able to get a shot in and injure them. It should give us long enough to get away.”

Chris didn’t try and talk her out of it. He knew their chances were looking slim. “Are you sure you can do this?” He asked when he noticed her hand starting to shake.

Alicia breathed deeply. “What other choice do we have? We’re dead if we _don’t_ try.”

“Three,” the voice started counting down, making Alicia’s blood run cold.

“Come on. I’ll go first,” Chris said.

Alicia grabbed his shoulder before he left the car. He paused to look back at her.

“Be careful.”

Chris nodded and turned to open the car door. As he stepped out, he lifted his hands above his head. “Don’t shoot. I’m unarmed.”

“Bullshit. I saw your gun earlier. Where is it?”

 _Crap_. Alicia watched Chris keep one hand above his head while he used his free hand to start reaching for the gun.

“Ah, ah, slowly. Don’t try and be a hero, alright?”

Chris slowed his movements. He wrapped his fingers around the hand and lifted it for the voice to see.

“Drop it.”

Chris did as he was told and even kicked it away.

“Good. Now, you can come out too.”

Chris’s eyes found her. She stared back, her stomach twisting and turning. She tucked the gun in her back and moved across the seats.

Alicia swung her legs out of the car slowly, making sure to move as slow as she could get away with while she thought of what to say to the stranger.

When she finally rested her eyes on the stranger Alicia frowned. She didn’t know what she expected when she left the car, but it wasn’t a person dressed in a motor cycle jacket and helmet. The blackened visor completely prevented Alicia seeing who was behind it. The only indication she had to tell her that she was talking to a girl was the breasts pushing against the thermal shirt under her leather jacket and feminine curves under her black ripped jeans.

Biker slightly lowered the automatic rifle when Alicia forced herself to look at their attacker. She couldn’t tell what the biker was thinking but her instinct told her that the girl hadn’t expected to see Alicia.

As if remembering what she was doing, Biker raised her gun again, her voice somewhat softer. “Throw your gun too, Darlin’,”

Alicia frowned at the name. Now that she was outside the car she detected a hint of a muffled Australian accent behind the visor. “You don’t have to do this. We just want to get back to our family.”

“I said throw your gun.”

Alicia grabbed the gun and lowered it to the ground, her hands raised to her head to show she was unarmed.

Biker aimed the gun between them. “Right. What have you done to him? He came through here. I know you saw him. That’s probably his blood I saw on your knife.”

Chris and Alicia looked at one another. What was the girl talking about?

“What the hell are you talking about?” Chris asked, voicing her thoughts.

Bike jabbed the gun at him. “Don’t play fucking dumb with me. My brother, Aron. He comes up to my shoulder, blonde hair, looks miserable all the time lately. What have you done with him?”

Alicia felt her heart squeeze with fear and her legs begin to turn to jelly when Biker aimed the nozzle of her gun at her.

When neither of them answered, Biker grew frustrated; she growled as she loped forward, barging past them to look in the car. She kept Alicia and Chris in her sights. Alicia and Chris stood completely still as the girl searched for her missing brother.

When Biker wasn’t looking, Alicia flicked her gaze to the gun near her feet and prepared herself.

When Biker turned back around Alicia felt her heart fall to her feet. Her insides turned to ice when she saw Chris's bloody knife held between Bikers thumb and finger. Alicia could feel the girl’s accusing gaze through the visor.

Chris rushed to explain. “I killed a walker before you came. That’s where the blood is from. I swear I haven’t seen your brother. No one else has come through here. There’s no one here but us.”

“You’re lying,” Biker said, but Alicia heard the doubt in her voice.

Unexpected movement around them made Alicia move without thinking.

She threw her hand up a when a dead eyed face appeared behind the Biker, its bloody teeth chattering and gnawing at the air, inches away from her. 

Chris yelled out in the confusion as gunfire vibrated loudly in the tunnel.

When the echoes finally receded, Chris looked up, ready to help Alicia. But he stood, his mouth open, words failing him.

Alicia couldn't move; her heart raced and her her skin prickled as adrenaline rushed in her blood. 

“I saved your life,” Biker stated, and as if to emphasise her point, Alicia heard the familiar garbled wet moan of a walker as it fell to the floor behind her. “You owe me now.”

Alicia released an involuntary sound, halfway between a laugh and a cry when the walker she had shot behind the stranger wheezed and dropped to the floor.

At the sound Biker looked over her shoulder. When she looked back the girl lifted her visor as she did, revealing a pair of startling blue eyes. They found Alicia and travelled over her face, a hint of awe in her gaze.

“Now you owe me, too,” Alicia countered, her voice slightly shaking.

Biker's eyes crinkled as she smiled under her helmet. She lowered her gun. “You got balls, Darlin’." She tilted her head. "I respect that.”

Alicia lowered her own gun. “We haven’t seen your brother. You have to believe us.”

"I do." The humorous glint in Biker’s eyes suddenly dimmed and she growled to herself. “ _Dammit_.”

Without a word, Biker shouldered her gun and started walking away, not even stopping to check to see if Alicia and Chris were following.

Alicia heard Chris release a heavy, shuddering breath of relief as they watched her walk away. "That could have been bad. Come on. Let's find everyone."

As Chris began to grab his things, Alicia stared after the girl. 

That could have been the end of it. They were safe now. They could get away and find their family. But something about the girl pulled at her.

Instead of trying to attack, Alicia chased after the girl.

"Alicia? What are you doing?" Chris whispered harshly. 

“Hey, wait!"

Biker paused. She looked over her shoulder. When she saw Alicia running after her she turned fully, her hand moving to her gun just in case Alicia got any ideas. 

Alicia tucked her gun to the back of her pants and showed she was unarmed. "I'm not going to try anything. I just want to talk."

The girl's blue eyes stared at her, waiting. 

Alicia cleared her throat. Her body was still shaking. "Did you see anyone on your way in here? Three men? One of them has a limp."

Biker shook her head. “No. Sorry. I was looking for Aron in here and lost him. Then I saw him,” she said, gesturing to Chris when he caught up to Alicia, "and thought he had chased him."

Hope fell like a stone in Alicia's heart. 

Biker understood. Sadness dulled her eyes as she looked at Alicia. She sighed. "Look, I'm sorry you lost your people. I am. I just need to go. I need to find my brother.”

Biker turned to leave again.

Except this time she didn’t make it far before the stopped and turned around again. “How would you like a deal?"

Chris looked doubtful.

Alicia stared, waiting. "What kind of deal?"

“Why don’t we help each other out? I’ll help you find your family if you help me find what’s left of mine?”

Alicia inhaled deeply as she thought. Work _with_ the girl who had just threatened to end their lives not moments ago? She could already imagine what Nick would say about how crazy that would be.

Alicia tried to think like her mother and Travis. She tried to imagine what they would do, but each scenario she thought of conflicted with one another and she couldn’t think straight.

As Alicia's thoughts raced, biker stepped forward. She looked to Alicia imploringly, the sincere look in her eyes pulling at Alicia again. “Please, Aron is all I have left. I don’t know what I would do without him. If you help me find him, I promise I’ll help you find your family too. You have my word.”

Alicia looked to Chris for his input but he just shrugged in response.

“Do you promise not to point that thing at us again?” he said, nodding to the girl’s rifle.

The girl’s eyes shined. “I promise.”

Alicia crossed her arms, jutting out her chin. “Okay, you have a deal. But not until I see your face. I want to know who I’m working with.”

The girl chuckled, as if she found Alicia's compromise funny.

Alicia watched the girl shoulder the strap of her rifle to free her hands and reach up to unbuckle her clip under her chin. As she pulled the helmet away, a flourish of golden hair spilled out, falling around her shoulders and framed her round face. 

The girl smiled. “The name is Elyza. Elyza Lex.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [In case anyone was wondering, yup. Aron is 'Aden' ;) ]


	3. Shaky Alliance

 

 

Alicia’s breath hitched.

Now that her helmet was off and attached to a cord at the girl’s belt, Elyza’s blue eyes looked more penetrating than before. They were like ice, hard and cutting despite the lighting, and framed by thick lashes. They cruised Alicia’s own body with unrestrained thoroughness while Alicia took in the stranger before her.

Elyza’s body looked compact. She wasn’t any taller than Alicia was by any means, but Elyza held herself well; every part of her – her stance, the muscle in her body, - radiated an undeniable strength and confidence which she found both intimidating and attractive. As her gaze moved to Elyza’s slightly tanned face Alicia sensed she had survived her own share of horrors. A patchwork of recent scratches dotted Elyza’s face and a healed scar ran the length of the left side of her jawline, but it didn’t take away from her beauty.

When Alicia’s gaze dropped to her mouth she noticed a freckle above her lips. Full lips which curved into a smirk which told Alicia she had been looking too long.

“Well…um, what was your name again?”

“Alicia Clark.”

“Alicia Clark, huh?” Elyza’s voice wrapped around the name like silk. She breathed a chuckle, capturing Alicia’s gaze. “Like what you see?”

Alicia didn’t answer, doing her best to hide her blush.

“Good.” Elyza turned in the direction they had entered the tunnel. “Let’s go.”

Alicia hesitated.

The blonde looked over her shoulder. When she saw Alicia and Chris hadn’t moved, she sighed. “Look, if I was going to kill you I would have done it already.”

“Why haven’t you?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

Elyza looked at her feet. The question seemed to surprise her.

When she looked up again Alicia saw that her smirk was gone and her voice was laced with sadness. “Because there are already enough monsters in this world without adding myself to the bunch.”

Alicia swallowed. “Alright.”

She joined Elyza, Chris in tow, and lifted out her gun. “Do you have any ammo for this thing?”

“Sure. Take these.” Elyza handed her a couple of magazines.

After being enveloped in the darkness of the tunnel, walking out into the openness of the street felt strange. The last time she had been here Walkers had covered almost every inch of the asphalt. Now the horde had moved on, she could have mistaken the empty street for pre-dawn sleepiness. She watched the sun rise above the shopping mall, bursting through the tree tops, colouring the sky in pale pinks and blue.  

As they walked in silence, Alicia watched Elyza demurely from the corner of her eyes.

The girl seemed lost in her own thoughts; her eyes constantly surveyed the area, reacting to every little sound. She moved with a purpose. There was no room for error as she led the way out into the street.

“My dad might have left something here. He made it away. I know he did.” Chris said and jogged ahead of them, gun in hand.

Elyza shook her head and readied her own gun. She watched him as he looked to the road, checking for any sign that Travis might have left something behind for them. 

“Your boyfriend is going to get himself killed one day. He’s so loud,” Elyza remarked, commenting on Chris’s heavy tread.

“There are no Walkers around,” Alicia said. “And he’s not my boyfriend.”

Elyza pulled her eyes from him to Alicia. “No? I thought there was maybe something-,”

Alicia shook her head. “No. Definitely not. He’s kind of my step brother.”

“Kind of?”

“My mom and his dad are engaged. They were going to get married, but then the world went to shit, so…”

Elyza gave a knowing nod. “Ah, I get it.”

“What about you?”

“What _about_ me?”

“You got a boyfriend?”

Elyza gave a snort. “Not in this life. My tastes are a little different.”

When Elyza gave her a suggestive wink, Alicia didn’t need her to spell it out.

“Oh.”

“The world doesn’t have time for things like that nowadays anyway. The best thing you can do is remain unattached. It’s safer that way, having no one else to worry about except yourself.”

Alicia frowned. “You don’t truly believe that, do you?”

Elyza shrugged.

“You care about your brother,” Alicia said on when the girl didn’t speak. “You wouldn’t go through all this - joining with strangers to find him - if you thought he wasn’t worth it.”

Alicia looked down at her gun. “I would do the same for any of my loved ones.”

When she looked up Elyza was staring at her. Her blue eyes looked brighter now they were outside. They looked at her, her thoughts unreadable. She looked as if she was about to say something when a loud metallic noise sent chills down Alicia’s spine.

Both girls lifted their guns at the same time in the direction of a slight incline.

An abandoned car sat at the top. They waited for the sound to come again. For a Walker to emerge, groaning and shuffling from the car, but nothing came.

Holding her gun towards the sound, Elyza silently grabbed the attention of both Alicia and Chris and gestured to the car. After receiving nods, the three of them mutely moved toward the sound.

The sound came again, but it was different. It wasn’t like any Walker Alicia had ever heard, but Elyza wasn’t taking any chances. She moved like a panther, her steps calculated and silent. When the noise turned into a scratching sound, Elyza placed herself between it and Alicia, holding one arm up as if it would stop whatever was waiting for them.

After gesturing for Alicia and Chris to stay back, Elyza moved the rest of the way toward it. She readied her gun, lowering to a half crouch, her arm outstretched toward the car door. With one decisive tug Elyza wrenched open the door.

She threw up her gun at the same time but there was nothing there.

Elyza moved closer.

Alicia and Chris watched with bated breath as the bold blonde inspected the car.

Suddenly Elyza straightened and threw them a thumbs up signal. “Everything’s fine. Just a false-,”

A small black and grey furry animal jumped out at Elyza. It was clear that whatever Elyza had been expecting, a raccoon was definitely not it. She jumped as it scurried past her with a mouthful of food.

“Jesus Christ!” Elyza exclaimed. She lifted her gun.

“No!” Alicia waved her arms. “Don’t shoot it!”

Elyza threw her a confused look but didn’t shoot.

“It’s just trying to survive like us.”

Alicia joined her at the car and together they watched the raccoon amble smugly past Chris and sit down in the road to stop and eat whatever it had stolen from the car. It fumbled around with the plastic bag and ripped at it until it open and chips burst out.  

Chris laughed as it held the chips and crunched away at them like a human.

“Thought it was a Walker,” Elyza growled. “The damn thing gave me a bloody heart attack.”

Alicia couldn’t hide her laugh. Even when the Aussie shot her a glare.

“Sorry.” Alicia quickly composed herself but her smile remained.

Elyza mumbled. “Come on. This way. I left my bike over at the mart.”

Chris ran up after her. “You have a bike?”

At the sound of excitement in his voice, Elyza’s smirk returned. The raccoon forgotten, she started heading toward the mart, her voice elevated with pride as she spoke of her bike. “Yeah. My pride and joy: Harley 883 Iron. Got my baby before all this went down. She’s a little dented but she’s the smoothest ride you’ll ever experience.”

While Chris asked question after question about Elyza’s bike, something the girl said stuck in Alicia’s mind.

“Wait. You said you left it at the mart?” she said.

Elyza crooked an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“When did you get there?”

“Last night.”

“We were there last night,” Alicia said.

Elyza fell silent.

When she didn’t say anything Alicia aimed her gun at her head.

Chris stepped forward. “Alicia, what the hell are you-?”

“I thought you said you didn’t see any of my people?” Alicia said. She tightened her grip. She really didn’t want to shoot but she would if she had to. “When I asked you said that you had seen no one else.”

Elyza didn’t blink. “Okay.” She carefully lowered her gun to the ground and looked Alicia dead in the eye. “Okay, I admit it. I lied. I did see them.”

Hope and dread mixed, bubbling around in Alicia’s chest. What if she girl had done something to them? Was she wrong to trust this girl? Maybe she wanted to lead them into a trap?

“Were they…” Alicia couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.

“They weren’t killed. They all managed to get away from the horde. At least that’s what I saw anyway.”

Chris released a breath of relief, but Alicia wasn’t satisfied.

“Why did you lie to us?” she pushed.

“I needed your help,” Elyza stated simply.

“You should have told us that you saw them!” Alicia said, growing more and more angry with the stranger by the second. “We would have helped anyway-,”

“Really?” Now it was Elyza’s turn to get angry. “If I had told you that I had seen your people, would you have left them to come with me to find my brother, knowing I was just a stranger?”

When Alicia didn’t say anything, Elyza carried on. “I asked for help in the past. I asked and I trusted people and all it did was bring me death. You think I want to make the same mistake again?” She sighed. “I didn’t tell you because I was afraid you would leave. It’s what I might have done.”

While Alicia was still processing her words, Elyza rushed forward.

The girl was on her before she had time to react. Elyza wrapped her fingers around the shaking hand holding the gun, twisting it out of Alicia’s grasp and pointed it up before she could shoot. They wrestled together until Elyza forced the gun from her hand.

Panic flared in Alicia’s chest. “Please, don’t kill me,” she gasped.

A definitive click behind Elyza announced Chris’s loaded gun, but the girl didn’t seem bothered by it. Her eyes never left Alicia’s.

“I needed to be sure you weren’t just like the rest of the scum I’ve had to deal with,” she said, equally as breathless as Alicia. “The Walkers are not the only danger in this world, Clark. The living are just as dangerous as the dead, if not more. You need to remember that or it will kill you.”

Alicia’s gaze flicked to the gun and she glared. “I’m starting to see that.”

Elyza looked down at the gun. It seemed to frustrate her that it was even there. She clenched her teeth and dropped it at Alicia’s feet. “I am not the enemy. Don’t treat me like it.”

Alicia quickly bent to grab the gun.

They stared at one another, tension heavy in the silence between them.

“So, what do we do now?”

“We look for your family,” Elyza answered.

“But you said your brother-,”

“Aron is smart. Where there is people, there is food. He knows to follow the living but stay far enough away so that he won’t be seen. Chances are, where your family is heading, Aron is too. Don’t worry,” Elyza added when Alicia’s breath caught. “He won’t hurt them.”

As she turned Elyza came face to face with Chris’s gun. She looked him up and down and tilted her head, pushing it aside with two fingers.

“If you don’t shoot me I’ll let you ride the bike,” Elyza said and moved to continue walking past him as though the conversation had never taken place.

Chris looked to Alicia as he holstered his gun. “She’s weird.”

Alicia watched the blonde strut away and shook her head. “Got that right.”

Suddenly, Alicia heard a high pitched noise followed by a panicking Elyza.

“No, no, no! I didn’t leave her like that. _God no._ Please…”

Alicia had no idea what Elyza had seen but her panicked cry made her panic too. They ran to catch up to her as fast as they could.

When they finally found her Elyza was crouched before an overturned motorcycle. Her hands flew over the metal as she inspected it, muttering technical vehicle jargon. Alicia noticed the way the blonde’s faced paled the more she looked at it.

“Elyza-?”

Finally, Elyza breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s okay, she’s fine. Just a little scuffed when she fell.”

Chris inspected it. “Does it still work?”

Elyza shook her head. “I think she needs a new engine, and she ran out of fuel a while back so I had to push her up to the mart. I’d hoped there might be a bike to siphon fuel out of, but no luck. I was looking around for one when I noticed Aron had run off. I thought he had gone in the tunnel.”

“You pushed it all the way here?”

“You’re crazy. It’s just a bike. As nice as it is, I would have left it,” Chris said. 

“She isn’t just a bike,” Elyza said indignantly. She turned back and rested her hands on the machine, stroking it protectively. “Next to Aron, she’s all that’s left of my life before…everything.”

Alicia and Chris looked at one another over the blonde.

Alicia didn’t know what to say. The only thing she had felt a strong connection to had been her phone, but in the last month the lack of electric to recharge her phone and dropped connections had made her cell phone redundant. Everyone had resorted to using Walkie-talkies.

Alicia understood being connected to something. But this was different. She noticed the way Elyza looked at the bike, a look of fear and disappointment that went beyond a cyclist’s love for their bike. It was clear that it meant a lot to her. Perhaps belonged to someone she had cared about before the end.

“What do you think pushed it over?”

Elyza stood, pulling the bike up with her. “I don’t know. A walker? The wind?”

She swung her leg over the bike and tried the ignition. The bike wheezed and sputtered into a pathetic nothing.

Alicia waved a hand at it. “You’re not thinking about bringing it with us, are you?”

“Well I’m not leaving her here. Would you leave a piece of your heart behind?”

At the girl’s words, Matt’s face flittered to the front of her mind. Leaving him after he had been bit was exactly what she had done. At the time she hadn’t known the reason she had to leave him, but after thinking back on it, it was the one thing that Alicia truly regretted. It hurt her to think she had just left. If she had known what had been wrong, maybe she would have stayed a little longer, instead of leaving him to battle the virus before it killed him?

Alicia swallowed thickly to fight back the lump she felt forming in her throat. “I’ve already had to.”

Elyza noticed the way Alicia’s voice broke. She looked down. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

When Elyza looked back up, her mouth turned up in a tentative smile, Alicia smiled back.

Unaware of their moment, Chris looked over the bike. “I think Strand had a garage at the house. We could take it back there. Maybe there’s parts there? Some fuel.”

Hope flashed in Elyza’s eyes.

Alicia nodded. “Yeah, maybe. He wouldn’t mind you using it other seeing as he perfectly fine living on his boat.”

Alicia knew Elyza detected the bitterness in her tone, but she was grateful that she didn’t push for answers. Even Alicia couldn’t explain the enigma that was Strand if she had all the time in the world.

Elyza stood off from her bike and sighed. “We’ll have to find another vehicle to tow her. We can’t push her all the way.”

Chris looked around at all the abandoned cars and smiled. “Take your pick.”

 

 

 

# # #

 

 

 

Alicia looked up into the rear view mirror and saw Elyza gazing at the world as it passed. “Are you sure you’re alright back there?”

After scouring the cars for the best part of an hour, they managed to find a truck with enough space to load Elyza’s bike on to it. There wasn’t much fuel left in the truck but Elyza reassured her it would be enough to them to the next station.

Alicia had taken the driver’s seat. She still didn’t trust this woman. Something about her made flags go up in Alicia’s mind. She didn’t trust Elyza, but she couldn’t argue that having her with them would be useful. Elyza knew her way around a gun, and if the boy she claimed was her brother was following Alicia’s family, Alicia would need her to call him off attacking them if he ever though he would need to.

Elyza leaned forward to look through the truck’s rear sliding window separating them. “Yeah, I’m fine, Darlin’. Don’t worry your little head about me.”

Just as she said that Alicia drove over a bump in the road, sending Elyza slightly airborne in the open back truck. “Damn, slow down will you?”

Alicia smiled to herself. “Sorry.”

“We should probably stop soon.”

“Why?”

“You might not need food, but I am starving. I nabbed myself some cookies back at the mart but I need something big. I can’t remember the last time I had a proper meal.”

“Well there’s nothing. The shops have all been looted,” Alicia said, remembering how Strand had come back with Daniel over two weeks ago after venturing out to check for other survivors and mentioned all the shops had been either overrun or picked clean by other survivors.

“Well then. I guess it’s time to go hunting, Darlin’.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a filler-y chapter. 
> 
> I know it's slow but after everything they have been through, and with Elyza's back story coming up, I figured there is a lot of sizing up and tests to be taken before either of them could trust each other.


	4. Only the Dead

“That raccoon would have been real tasty right about now; don’t you think?”

Alicia grinned when the sound of Elyza’s sarcastic remark meant for her carried over to them. “How could you look at that cutie and wanna eat him?”

Elyza laughed. “Trust me, darlin’. There’s been plenty of times I’ve looked at something cute and wanted to eat it.”

Alicia rolled her eyes and continued on.

As they wandered through the wheat field and silence reigned once more, Alicia felt her panic start to rise again.

Elyza had told her to pull over next to a wooded area and asked them to follow her. But when the woods became a wheat field and the high stalks blocked her view of anything over her head, Alicia felt nothing but dread and fear seep into her bones. She couldn’t see anything before her. Nothing but flaxen stalks, the same colour of Elyza’s hair greeted her.

If not for Chris’s loud, deep breathing as he walked a few steps beside her, weaving in and out of sight every so often, she knew the panic would have overcome her already.

“We should go back,” she said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “I don’t think there’s anything in here.”

“There will be,” came Elyza’s reply.

With a sigh, Alicia pushed on.

“She’s persistent,” Chris mumbled.

Alicia shrugged. “She knows what she’s doing.”

“What makes you so sure?”

Alicia looked up from her path and found Chris watching her through the stalks. “She’s survived.”

“So have we.” At her disapproving frown, Chris came closer, lowering his voice to hushed tones. “I’m just saying that I don’t completely trust her. She’s a stranger.”

“You’re far too suspicious, Chris,” Alicia sighed.

“You’re too trusting,” he shot back.

Alicia understood his distrust, but with the number of their group already small and with the dead inheriting the Earth, she couldn’t afford to let his fear overcome her too. What if Elyza was the key to them surviving this living hell? What if having her bought them a few years? Surely joining with other survivors made more sense than cutting themselves off from them?

Since the world had gone to shit, Alicia had seen very few other survivors, especially after the hospital. Travis, Daniel and Strand had become the unspoken joint head of the group. They decided who to trust and where to go. Whilst they had kept everyone safe, with them in charge, Alicia had seen little to no contact with anyone outside of their little group. And it was wearing thin.

When she said nothing, Chris reached through the wheat to pull her to a stop.

“Ow!” Alicia said when his fingers bit into her arm. She glared at the unexpected vice-like grip. “Chris, what the hell-?”

“I mean it, Alicia.”

“If we start to think that everybody we meet from now on is a threat, then that’s the only way they are going to look. I know what you’re thinking, Chris, but I think…I don’t know. I think if she wanted to kill us, wouldn’t she have actually done it?”

Chris made a face. “Why are you defending her? She literally had a gun in our faces yesterday. And who’s to say she isn’t just lying; just waiting for us to lead us back to our group so she can take what she can before leaving? We don’t even know if she really even has a brother. She’s lied before.”

“I have to believe that there are still good people left,” Alicia retorted.

“There’s no good left, Alicia, or bad. Only the dead.”

He couldn’t truly believe that. Nick had brought Strand – the man who had saved him and had later allowed them refuge in his house, and had it not been for Chris’s own father, Daniel and Ofelia, people Chris had become close to, wouldn’t be a part of their group.

Alicia was about to tell him so. But as the sound of wheat crunching under boots reached them, the challenging look in his eyes turned into one of annoyance.

“Hey, what are you two talking about?”

“Nothing,” Alicia said, but Chris fell silent.

Elyza’s smile wavered, sensing the tension between them.

Chris eventually shook his head. “Nothing.”

He threw Alicia a pointed look before turning and walking away.

“He’s not very talkative, is he?” Elyza asked as they watched him huff and lope away.

“He’s just a little…difficult.”

“Difficult?” Elyza scoffed. “Losing the last few pounds is difficult. Forcing yourself to eat mushrooms when they look like regurgitated black goo, but it’s the only thing you’ve managed to find in days – that’s difficult. Him? He’s something else.”

Alicia glanced over at the blonde. Despite her friendly smile, there was a strange look in Elyza’s gaze. It made her wonder if she had overheard them. Elyza didn’t push, nor did she give the impression that she had, but Alicia noticed the guarded look she was trying so hard, and failing, to hide.

She decided to be honest. It was the only way they had any hope of getting along. “He was talking about you.”

“Me?” Elyza didn’t look surprised by her answer. “He doesn’t like me very much, does he?”

“It’s not that. He just doesn’t trust you.”

“Oh, well that’s a relief,” Elyza said sarcastically. She was quiet as they began walking. When she spoke again her tone was laced with indifference, but Alicia heard the tentative hope she couldn’t hide in her tone. “And, what about you?”

Alicia shrugged. “I don’t know. Honestly, I think it would be stupid to trust anyone as the world is now. But I also know that, just like before, not everyone is bad. I would at least make the effort of getting to know you first.”

“You don’t wanna know me.”

“Why would you say that?”

“I’ve…I’ve had to do bad things.” Elyza’s mouth thinned as she said it. She looked away to the field, but something told Alicia that she wasn’t really seeing it. Elyza’s gaze moved far beyond the golden wheat stalks and trees, fixing on something that wasn’t there.

As the silence stretched on and Elyza became more and more trapped in her memories, Alicia felt her heart squeeze. Elyza looked solid – strong, sure and confident. But it was the look in her eyes, the way her stark blue darkened, their light – her hope, fading, that Alicia realised she had no idea what this girl had been through or what untold horrors she carried with her.

Alicia didn’t want her to suffer anymore. She wasn’t naïve. She knew the world had changed forever, and there were things they would have to do if they ever expected to survive it. But that didn’t mean that they had to define them and Elyza had to know that.

Alicia reached out to touch her hand. “We all have.”

It was only a small touch, but its reaction was one she hadn’t been expecting. Elyza recoiled from her as if she had been burnt, hiding her hand as a myriad of conflicting emotions crossed her face: sadness, shock, hope, wonder, fear, but the one that ultimately pinned Alicia, taking her by surprise, was anger.

“Really?” Elyza snapped as she rounded on her. “No offence, darlin’, but I seriously doubt you’ve had to do or lost anything like I have.”

 _Whoa. Where’d that come from?_ Without warning, Alicia was caught once again, reliving the memory of Matt in his bed, sweating. Bloody. Unaware that her boyfriend had been slowly dying. It hurt. Caught her off guard.

Alicia’s face burned. “You have _no_ idea what I’ve been through. What any of us have all been through! You think you’re the only one who’s lost people, suffered?”

“You should listen to your step brother.”

Anger pumped through Alicia. Made her breathless, shake. She almost missed the sadness in Elyza’s tone.

“What? What are you talking about?”

Elyza swallowed. “Maybe there are no good people left.”

Resignation replaced sadness. As if Elyza truly believed what she said. Alicia wanted to remain angry, but when she saw unshed tears shimmering in the other girl’s eyes, she realised the answer to her question: Elyza had overheard them.

“Elyza…”

Elyza broke her gaze. “Come on. Let’s just find some food so we can get you back to your family and I can find my brother. Once the deal’s done, we’ll be on our way, and you won’t have to worry about us.”

They were both quiet while they walked. While they explored the field only the sounds of their breathing and the dry brush as their shoulders slid against the wheat stalks filled the silence. Elyza’s words played on her mind.

“I’m really sorry,” Alicia said quietly.

Elyza didn’t give any kind of inkling that she had heard her talk. Instead she powered on, scanning the fields or animals.

Alicia shrugged and carried on talking anyway. “You’re right. I don’t know what you’ve been through. I don’t know what horrors you’ve had to face. But I know that…you don’t have to face them alone.”

That grabbed the girl’s attention. “What are you talking about?”

“The house we’re staying in – it’s big. Big enough that there should be enough space. For you both, I mean. You and your brother.”

Elyza was quiet.

Before she could even get an answer Elyza unexpectedly stopped dead and raised her arm. Alicia’s collar bone warmed where the girl’s calloused fingers brushed across it. Realising where her hand was, Elyza retracted her hand, and instead lifted a finger to her lips upon Alicia’s questioning gaze.

“What are you doing?”

“ _Shh_. Do you hear that?”

Immediately on alert, Alicia strained her ears for the sound she was talking about. At first she couldn’t hear it. Nothing but the wind and the sound of birds chirping somewhere in the distance.

Then she heard it. The sound that had become much too familiar. Feet shuffling, a broken moan.

“Walkers. We need to find Chris!” Alicia demanded.

Elyza nodded. “Stay low, be quiet.”

They moved through the wheat carefully, making sure to make as little noise as they could.

It didn’t take long before they found Chris. He hadn’t noticed the Walkers. Lost in his own thoughts, Chris stood with his back to them, his gun resting in his grip as he surveyed the field. Alicia spotted at least three Walkers trudging their way towards him, their jaws clacking together, teeth chattering in their hollowed cheeks.

Once they were close enough Elyza pulled out her knife. She turned it around in her hand until the blade pointed to her body. She glanced to Alicia. “Get out your knife. We’re taking them out quietly.”

Alicia nodded and fumbled around in her pants. She felt the blood drain from her face. “I don’t have one.”

Elyza frowned. She looked to Chris then back again. “Okay. Then just stay here. We can’t use gunfire. The sound will alert any others nearby.”

After a nod, Alicia followed Elyza as she moved through the wheat until she found a little hiding place behind a misplaced boulder.

Alicia became mesmerized as she watched her. The girl moved like panther: silent, powerful, unyielding. When she reached the walkers, Elyza leapt up behind one silently, embedding her knife into its skull. By the time it fell, the involuntary noises it made caught the attention of the others. They turned and started shuffling in her direction.

Seeing them all start to move towards her, Alicia inhaled sharply, ready to call out to warn her. But when Elyza turned quickly, stabbing the Walkers and shoving their corpses aside as though they weighed nothing more than a bag of sugar, Alicia found she didn’t need to worry.

Once the last one was dead, the blonde turned and found her watching. Despite their conversation moments before and the blood spattered on her shirt and dripping from the tip of the knife, Elyza smiled.

“Impressive,” Alicia admitted. She rose from her spot and returned the smile.

“You think so?” Elyza wiped the blood from her knife on her pants.

Chris looked at the downed walkers and then at Elyza. “What the—you did that?”

“Good job I was there, huh?”

Chris clenched his jaw.

“Come on, Chris. You have to admit that she saved your ass.”

Chris shrugged. His chest swelled. “I could have handled them.”

Elyza nodded. “I know you could have.”

Chris looked at her.

Elyza’s words weren’t in jest, nor did they sound smug. They were meant to placate and reassure, Alicia realised. Elyza was trying to reach out to him. The thought made her smile. To her relief, some of the tension disappeared from his shoulders and when he looked at Elyza again, he did so without suspicion. He pointed to her knife.

“Could you…I mean; would you be able to teach me how you did that?” He fidgeted under their joint gaze. “I’ve tried to do it before but the heads are too hard.”

Elyza finished cleaning her knife and flipped it around. “Okay. So the first thing you wanna do is make sure you’re holding the knife right. If you don’t grab it steady, you run the risk of hurting yourself. You’re right, heads are hard, which is why you have to make sure you stab in the right place. Here,” she said, pointing to her own temple, “And just at the back of the neck, below the skull; they’re the softest and easiest places to get your knife in. Or, if you can handle it, the eyes.”

Chris cringed, making Elyza chuckle. “Yeah, same face I made when I did it, too.”

“You stabbed one in the eye?”

Elyza turned to answer Alicia’s question, but her words died on her tongue. Instead Alicia saw the colour drain from her face as panic set in her eyes.

 “ _Watch out_!”

But it was too late. Alicia felt the air shift next to her, the same moment stiff hands reached out to grab her. She cried out as the walker’s ice-cold fingers clamped into her skin, its razor sharp fingernails digging into the hollow of her collarbone. Her heart pounded painfully against her ribcage as she fought, doing her best as she twisted and squirmed to evade its clattering gnarled, yellow-black teeth.

Alicia pushed against the walker, but he was stronger – the dead man’s weight overpowered her, and they crashed to the floor in a heap.

The putrid smell of the decomposing gore of its last kill filled her nostrils. Alicia pushed back but it had caught her off guard, and when it looked back at her with milky eyes and wrinkled, rotten flesh, she shoved the walker away with both hands, giving herself enough time to grab her gun. She barely registered a shout – words garbled in her panic, before she took the safety off and pulled the trigger.

The gunshot cracked like thunder in the quiet, the remnants of the shot echoing through the bruised sky.

The gun shot threw the walker’s head back, throwing blood spattering across the sheets of gold wheat behind him. He collapsed into a wilted heap at her feet and leaked into the ground.

 Elyza and Chris re-joined her seconds later.

“Are you alright?” Chris asked. He looked her over.

Alicia gasped for breath. “I’m fine.”

But she wasn’t fine. Not anymore. Alicia didn’t care that blood was on her hands or her clothes. She stared down at the walker, watching as its blood oozed thickly into the dry soil. She tried to move her limbs but she couldn’t. The longer she looked at the downed walker, the more she felt herself trapped in a state of paralysis.

The man was dead. He was a walker, but he had once been alive. And now he was on the ground, a gaping bullet hole punctured into his forehead, his dead eyes staring up at her.

While Chris moved to look inspect the walker, Elyza took his spot.

“Hey.” Her voice was so soft it could have been a whisper. “Hey, look at me.”

Alicia dragged her gaze from the body and found herself drowning in blue. Elyza didn’t say anything more. She didn’t need to. Alicia saw the pity in her eyes. She couldn’t bear it. She turned away and rushed back to the boulder.

Her stomach tensed as she heaved the contents of her stomach onto the ground. It burned like acid all the way up, but not as much as if burned to know she had to use her gun twice in a day. It made her feel sick.

“You alright?” Elyza asked.

Alicia straightened and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “What do you think?”

“I think we should get out of here.” Elyza knew she didn’t want to talk about it, and Alicia was grateful that she didn’t push. The blonde looked at her watch and gazed around the field. “It’ll be getting dark in a few hours and we need to hole up somewhere. You can be sure any walkers nearby will have heard that gunshot.”

Her tone wasn’t accusatory, but Alicia knew she disapproved of her using her gun.

With a nod Elyza turned. She returned her knife to the sheath on her left thigh and started back towards the truck. “Come on.”


End file.
